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Putin Tells Powell Relations Are Stable

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, May 13, 2003

AP Diplomatic Writer

Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to move past the U.S.-Russian split over the Iraq war and narrowed differences with the Bush administration over technology sales to Iran.

But the two sides on Wednesday did not settle their disagreement over lifting U.N. sanctions against Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell said they had not resolved the issue of weapons searches, and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov stressed his government's insistence on a "legal basis" for governmental transition in Baghdad.

Driving to set a positive agenda for President Bush's talks June 1 in St. Petersburg with Putin, Powell met with the president at the Kremlin and three times with Ivanov and had dinner with the foreign minister.

"We should congratulate each other," Putin said cheerfully as the Russian Duma, or lower house of parliament, approved a pact with the United States to cut long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds over the next 10 years.

And Putin went on from there to declare "we have had a lot of arguments but we have successfully overcome our differences," referring to Russia's objections to the war with Iraq.

The split did not disrupt the "basic foundation of our bilateral relationship," he said.

Agreeing, Powell said "now we should join together to help the people have a better life."

Still, while the United States wants an unconditional lifting of sanctions against Iraq, the Russians want only a suspension and a continuation of U.N. weapons searches.

Ivanov's call for a legal basis in transforming Iraq appeared to reflect Moscow's position favoring a prominent role for the United Nations in the reconstruction of the war-torn country.

Putin called his meeting with Powell "a good opportunity to check our watches" before he receives Bush in St. Petersburg in June. He said the Duma's ratification of the arms accord was an accomplishment for both countries.

However, Russian technology sales to Iran pose another potential snarl ahead of the St. Petersburg meeting. The Russians are resisting ending the sales despite urgent appeals by the Bush administration, arguing that the technology adds significantly to Iran's nuclear weapons goals. The standoff is preventing resolution of the most contentious dispute in the U.S.-Russian relationship.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has found that Iran has a vibrant weapons program, and Powell had hoped that this evidence would help change minds when he met with Putin and Ivanov.

Bush is due in St. Petersburg on June 1, and as rancorous as the impasse has been, the sale of technology to Iran is only one of the sore points.

Russia first wants assurances that weapons of mass destruction _ the main reason Bush gave for going to war _ are not lurking in Iraqi hideaways, before it will support lifting the economic sanctions.

U.N. weapons inspection teams are also on the agenda. The Bush administration sees no further use for them and is resorting to its own specialists to continue its so-far mostly unproductive search.

Putin hopes to strike a deal with Bush for cooperation in missile defense systems, having yielded to Bush's abandonment of the 1972 treaty that banned national missile defenses.

Other issues include postwar arrangements in Iraq and sales of Iraqi oil under a U.N. program due to expire early next month.

With it all, disagreements with Russia do not have the sharp edges of the opposition from various countries over war with Iraq, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday as Powell flew to Moscow from Saudi Arabia.